Ptters



EDWAED HALE, or WIGAN, ENGLAND, AssIeNoE To JAMES J. MGcoMB, or NEW YORK, N. Y.

METALLIC HOOP.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 226,065, dated March 30, 1880.

Application filed December 12,1879. Patented in England September 19, 1877.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, EDWARD HALE, of W'igan, in the county of Lancaster, England, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Metallic Hoops, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to hoops of iron, steel, or other suitable metal used for lthe purpose of securing the staves of barrels, casks, and

1o other vessels, and also for baling various elastic materials, and for other purposes.

The ends of metallic hoops when used for the purposes above indicated are usually united orsecured together by means of rivets, buckles, links, or other fastenings 5 and to effect this union they are usually punched, cut, drilled, bent, or twisted in such way as to weaken such ends and render them liable to break under less strain than the body or intermediate part of the hoop would sustain.

It is the object of this invention to remove this liability in metallic hoops to break at their weakened ends by making' such ends stron ger` than the intermediate length of the hoop, which is not subjected to any weakening by the union of the ends; and it consists in a metallic hoop having its ends thicker than its body or intermediate part, and also of the method of making such hoops.

The invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which Figure l is a perspective view of the hoop; Fig. 2, a section of a roller provided with a deepened groove, and Fig. 3 a section of a roller having a portion of its circumference cut away.

In these drawings, c a represent the thickened ends of a metallic hoop, the body or intermediate part of which is represented by A.

B represents a grooved roller having one of 4o its grooves, b, cut away or deepened, as shown at c, and D represents a plain roller having a portion of its circumference removed or attened, as shown at d.

As metallic hoops are more frequently joined by riveting than otherwise, the ends of the hoop shown in Fig. l of the drawings are provided with holes for the insertion of rivets.

Metallic hoops are generally made by passing the metal between heavy rollers, which may be provided with grooves, by which the desired 5o width and thickness is given to the metal, which may then be cut to the desired lengths;

or they may be formed from sheets of metal which has been brought to the desired thickness by rolling or otherwise, then stripped into 5 5 the proper widths, and afterward finished by being passed between plain rollers, and then cut into lengths as required; but heretofore, so far as known, such hoops have been substantially of the same width and of uniform thickness 6o throughout their entire length.

Hoops havin g their ends thickened or thicker than the part lying between the ends, as provided for by this invention, can be readily and conveniently made by cutting out the grooves in the rollers, as represented by c in Fig. 2, vso that they will be somewhat deeper throughout a certain part of their circuit around the roll, in order that, as the metal is carried forward by the revolution of the rolls, it will be left 7o thicker at the part where the groove has been deepened. By increasing or Adiminishing the circumference of the rollers the distancescrf1"--A tween the thickened parts of the rolled metal will be correspondingly varied, so that by cutting the strips of metal thus formed midway of each thickened part hoops of any required lengths can be provided.

Insteadof rolling the metal into strips of the proper width for a single hoop, sheets of 8o metal may be treated by passing them between rollers having a part of their circumference flattened or cut away, as shown in Fig. 3 by the letter d, which will operate to leave the sheet of metal thicker for the required space at every revolution 'of the rollers, and the sheets thus formed can then be cut into hoops, as already described. j

It will be seen that the shape and extent of the thickened part of the metal can be varied to 9o suit the various conditions of use to which the hoops may be subjected.

The ends of the hoops should be made enough thicker than the body thereof to compensate for the weakening of such ends by the special mode which may be adopted for securing them together; and as the extent of this weakening can gei'ierally be accurately ascertained, as Well as the increased strength arising from additional thickness, the desired compensation can be made.

It follows that by this construction a great saving in metal can be made in all cases in which it is necessary to weaken the ends of the hoops, as by punching, cutting, or bending them in order to unite them, and, at the same time, a hoop so made will be lighter and equally strong to resist tensile strain, as it' it were of the same thickness throughout its whole length as at its ends.

In some instances, as Where bales have been loosely bound, and afterward it is desired to compress them and secure them by the use of the same hoops or bands, it is necessary to make a second fastening at some distance from the end of the hoop. In such cases, in order to make such second fastening secure, the hoops may be strengthened at the point where such fastening would come, substantially as at their ends.

I am aware that it has been proposed in the manufacture of boilers to thicken the boilerplates along their riveted edges.

I am also aware that it has been proposed ing a part of their surface cut away or attened, as described, whereby the sheets are left thicker at distances, and then dividing the sheets across through the thickened parts and stripping the sections into the desired widths, thus forming blanks for hoops, each ot' whose ends are thicker than their bodies or parts-lying between such thickened ends, substantially as described.

EDWARD HALE.

Witnesses:

JOHN MAOIIEY, WILLIAM PIERCE. 

